Electric cars to be made in Hungary

FILE - The wheels of an electric car of Chinese car maker BYD is on display at the Essen Motor Show in Essen, Germany, Friday, Dec. 1, 2023. Chinese automaker BYD said Friday, Dec. 22, that it plans to build a new electric vehicle plant in Hungary, its first car factory in Europe, as part of its rapid global expansion.(AP Photo/Martin Meissner, File)
FILE - The wheels of an electric car of Chinese car maker BYD is on display at the Essen Motor Show in Essen, Germany, Friday, Dec. 1, 2023. Chinese automaker BYD said Friday, Dec. 22, that it plans to build a new electric vehicle plant in Hungary, its first car factory in Europe, as part of its rapid global expansion.(AP Photo/Martin Meissner, File)

BUDAPEST, Hungary -- One of the world's largest electrical vehicle manufacturers, China's BYD, will open its first European electric vehicle production factory in Hungary, the country's foreign minister said Friday, the latest step in the Central European nation's efforts to become a global hub for electric vehicle manufacturing.

BYD will build the plant near the southern Hungarian city of Szeged, and is expected to provide thousands of jobs to the region, Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said in a statement posted to his Facebook page.

The project "will be one of the largest investments in Hungarian economic history," he said, adding that the government would provide financial incentives to BYD for building the plant, details of which he said would be released at a later date.

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